Air traffic controllers at two smaller US airports can now watch runways on screens instead of looking through tower windows. The Federal Aviation Administration said Friday that digital systems are operating at Bartow Executive Airport in Florida and Kenai Municipal Airport in Alaska. It also named five airports without towers that are slated to get the technology.
For pilots who use those five fields, the prospect is a change in who coordinates traffic near the runway. The November announcement gives them a list of places to watch. It gives no start dates or operating hours for the new sites.
What controllers see
A conventional tower gives a controller an elevated view of the airfield. At a digital tower, cameras positioned at the airport send that view to a display in the control room. Controllers still use their judgment and talk to pilots by radio. The FAA says the systems can add information to the picture, helping controllers follow aircraft and vehicles around runways and taxiways. The agency describes tools such as infrared cameras for low light and on-screen tags that identify aircraft.
This is a different part of aviation from the traffic management programs that slow arrivals at busy airports. A digital tower changes how controllers see and direct traffic at a particular airfield. Its installation does not by itself add flights, change airline schedules or shorten delays elsewhere.
The agency says it tested the equipment for years at its technical center in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and at other sites. The FAA's program history describes tests of what controllers could see on screen, how their workstations were laid out and how they responded when equipment failed. Those are different questions from whether a camera can produce a clear picture on a good day.
Why the two airports matter
The FAA dates Bartow's operational milestone to September 2026. That was also when it approved the design of Frequentis's smartVISION system for use at eligible sponsor-owned contract tower airports with one runway and Class D airspace. The November release confirms that Kenai is operating a digital tower as well. It gives no separate date for when controllers in Kenai began using it.
A design approval tells airport sponsors which equipment they may consider under the applicable FAA process. Putting that equipment into public service at a particular airport still requires site commissioning. The program page says the agency typically spends 24 to 36 months evaluating a proposed design, depending on its maturity and engineering documentation. That figure describes design review. The FAA has given no comparable installation countdown for the next airports.
Where the FAA plans to go next
The five airports named for future deployment are Winter Haven Regional and Venice Municipal in Florida, Montgomery County Airpark in Maryland, Johnston Regional in North Carolina and Durango-La Plata County Airport in Colorado. The FAA says the sites currently lack towers. It identified federal funding for the installations, but its release did not say that any of the five had started offering tower service.
At a field without an operating tower, pilots generally coordinate by making position and intention calls on a common traffic advisory frequency and watching for one another. Once a tower is in service, the published hours and procedures determine when pilots contact controllers for instructions. A field with limited tower hours can still operate under its published procedures when the tower is closed.
For now, pilots planning trips to the five named airports should continue using the current airport entries in the FAA Chart Supplement and check current notices for changes. The first practical signs of a rollout will be the published service start, frequencies and hours for each airport.
